03/25, 9:50pm

Tenon iTools 7.3

Tenon has released iTools 7.3, an update to its Web site/service management system for Mac OS X. The update adds performance improvements, optional use of encryption during browser-based configuration sessions, the flexibility to restart various server daemons either manually or automatically, FastCGI support, the ability to use the iTools GUI to change the order that virtual hosts are loaded by Apache, new log viewing options, and extensions to the automatic system update facility to include add-on packages. Also included is the latest version of Apache. iTools costs $350 for new users.

03/25, 8:45pm

Keyboard SleeveCase

Waterfield Designs today introduced its Keyboard SleeveCase designed Apple's Wireless Keyboard. Made of durable ballistic nylon, it protects against scuffs and scrapes, and also incorporaates "a soft, felt-lined neoprene interior gently cushions the delicate keyboard It's sleek, light and compact, and it provides just the right amount of protection." The keyboard case ($30) also fits the latest Apple (wired) Keyboard.

03/25, 8:40pm

ReelSmart Motion Blur 3

RE:Vision Effects has released ReelSmart Motion Blur 3, a major upgrade to the plugin for After Effects compatible applications (Combustion, Boris Red, Final Cut Pro, Commotion). ReelSmart Motion Blur (RSMB) automatically tracks every pixel in a sequence and blurs based on calculated motion. RSMB is available in regular ($90) and Pro ($150) versions--with both versions now supporting 8- and 16-bits per channel processing. Both versions have also been optimized for multiprocessor machines. The Pro version adds support for foreground and background separation using a specified mask.

03/25, 4:40pm

Apps: Shockwave, TimeLog..

Pixadex 1.5.1 ($19) is an update to the popular icon storage and organization software for Mac OS X. Version 1.5.1 includes several improvements and bug fixes including support for recognizing and importing older iControl icon packs as well as better support for Apple's iChat buddy icons. [Download - 1.25MB]The Serial Keeper 3.2 is the newest version of the $10 information storage program from Byrd Soft. Version 3.2 brings many new features, including "Entry Types," allowing a user to create different templates for information that don't follow a standard format. [Download - OS X, Classic]TimeLog 2.1.0 is a $15 iCal integrated timer solution with an interface very similar to iTunes. Version 2.1 timer resuming, auto-resume, groups in Address Book, better time and date formatting options, and more. [Download - 2.4MB]Ready,Set,Go! 7.6.3 ($175) is the latest version of the desktop publishing and page layout program. Among the changes in this maintenance update are: a centralized 'Application Support' folder; better printing with QuickDraw; improved palette interface behavior; functional multiple copy and paste; and bug fixes. [Download - 3.6MB]Shockwave Player 10.0.0.210 is a maintenance update to the proprietary multimedia player for Mac OS X. Specific details of this latest release were not published. [Download - 4.8MB]Timbuktu Pro 7.0.1 ($100) is an advanced utility that allows users to control other Macs remotely. Version 7.0.1 offers better keyboard-based interface control address conflicts with certain USB camera drivers; allows files greater than 2GB to be properly handled; and allows Mac-to-Windows connection behind a Netopia R9100 router. [Download - Demo; Update]Widgetmeister is a $15 QuickTime utility to help add interactive widgets to existing QuickTime movies. It is easy to use, and doesn't require QuickTime Player Pro. [Download - buy]Spark 1.1 is the latest version of the shortcuts manager for Mac OS X. Using Spark, you can create Hot Keys to launch applications and documents, execute AppleScript, control iTunes, and more. You can also export and import your Hot Keys library, or save it in HTML format to print it. Spark is free. [Download - 1.5MB]

03/25, 2:35pm

aMac Digital Radiography

KTI announced today the inclusion of an intraoral camera feature in the aMac Digital Radiography System, which it says will "revolutionize the way intraoral camera images and microscopic video procedures will be acquired for Dentistry. Any intraoral camera including the OraCam can be utilized within aMac. The integration of operating microscope video to record still and video images could not be done any easier." The Mac OS X native aMac is designed to integrate with several Macintosh practice management applications.

03/25, 2:30pm

School mulls iBook program

Quaker Valley School District officials in Pittsburgh (PA) are considering scaling back an iBook program that provides about 1,700 laptops to third-graders through high school seniors, according to The Tribune-Review: "Officials said their options include providing the laptops only to students in the highest three or four grades, while using desktops for elementary grades. 'There is a question about whether younger students should have the responsibility of having their own computer,' district spokesman John Hanna said. Recent studies have found that younger students benefit less from having their own computers and that they frequently break or forget the equipment."

03/25, 12:15pm

iPod mini production

Apple told Reuters that tight hard drive supplies are the main reason behind the worldwide launch of the iPod mini: "Demand in the United States has outstripped expected supply through the end of June, the company said. Tight supplies of the hard drive at the core of the player forced Apple to delay increasing manufacturing until July, it said. 'We're actually consuming just about all the 4 gigabyte, 1- inch drives they make. As they make more, we'll get more,' said Greg Joswiak, vice president of hardware product marketing for Apple. Hitachi, which manufactures nearly all of the one-inch drives, expects to boost production to meet customer demand, Hitachi Storage Technologies Chief Executive Jun Naruse told Reuters earlier Thursday."

03/25, 12:00pm

Mac-based news system

Streambox will demonstrate its advanced portable digital news gathering system (DNGS) for field news crews at NAB 2004. The Streambox ACT-L3 Portable Video Transport System features Apple's PowerBooks for on-site, live-transmission of news feeds as well as editing video and a Power Mac G5-based decoder that receives the video. The system utilizes the ACT-L3 QuickTime codec for off-line store and forward encoding and supports real-time compression of 1/2 D1 (352x480i) interlaced 30 fps video, data rates as low as 64 kbps, live DV Video capture via FireWire, and bandwidth shaping technology. The ACT-L3 Mobile Video Transport G4 & G5 will begin shipping in April 2004.

03/25, 11:55am

Battlefield 1942 Deluxe Ed

Aspyr today announced it is publishing the first person team-based
shooter Battlefield 1942 Deluxe Edition for the Macintosh: "In Battlefield 1942, you will experience the heat of battle as you heroically storm the beaches of Normandy, drive a tank across the deserts of northern Africa, pilot a fighter plane during the Battle of Midway, command a battleship at Guadalcanal, or parachute and commandeer a jeep in operation Market Garden." This edition also includes its expansion pack Road to Rome, which "focuses exclusively on the key Italian and Sicilian campaigns of WWII" and include highly detailed environments such as Italian houses, Mediterranean trees, and even the Monte Cassino Monastery.

03/25, 9:15am

Apple iPod mini rollout

Apple today announced that is delaying the worldwide availability of iPod mini to July due to the much stronger than expected demand in the U.S., which it says is "far exceeding the total planned supply through the end of June." Apple says expects to ramp up its manufacturing of the iPod mini to meet worldwide demand in the July quarter. "The iPod mini is a huge hit with customers in the U.S. and we're sure it will be the same worldwide once we can ramp up our supply in the July quarter." The iPod mini was scheduled to be availabe worldwide in April, following the February introduction in the US.

03/25, 8:15am

Phelios debuts Kaijin

Phelios today announced the release of Kaijin, its "shoot 'em up game" that builds on the "retro inspired qualities of a side scrolling game" with a modern twist: "The Year is 2546 on Planet Terria. For too long, genetically modified grown food and pollution from the ocean and environment created a harmful impact on the natural food chain of Planet Terria. Over time, the insects and ocean dwellers mutated in wildly unusual ways and became stronger and more intelligent.... They now feel that Terrians are their Public Enemy Number One. So, they developed a secret army and are now ready to eradicate theTerrians with all of their mutant force." The $25 title for Mac OS X features 63 levels, 3 gaming styles and 3 levels of difficulty.

03/25, 8:05am

macXware offers OS X apps

macXware today announced three new Mac OS X solutions for home
and office users: MacBurn is a software burning application designed to
create audio and backup CD's and DVD's; MacPac is a five-pack of system utilities designed to boost the performance of any Mac (FontManager for managing fonts, RadicalPhoto for photo manipulation, RadicalSqueeze for compression, AppSwitch for application switching, and MacCabinet for storing/organization files on the desktop); and MoreMacFonts is a new collection of TrueType fonts for OS X users to add to the initial MacFonts compilation or other font collections. MacBurn, MacPac and MoreMacFonts will be available on April 2nd at Apple retail stores, CompUSA, Fry's Electronics, Microcenter and other software retailers. Each title will be $30.

03/25, 8:00am

Mini-Golf 1.01

DanLabGames has released Islands Mini-Golf 1.01, a 3D "funky mini golf simulation" game title that features 54 colorful mini-golf courses--each located in a unique paradisiac tropical island. The game supports up to 4 simultaneous players (hot-seat) and an online score keeping system. It also features 12 different characters, three different themes, and an original soundtrack. The title is available for $25 and run on Mac OS X.

03/25, 7:40am

LSI 4Gb/s FC PCI card

LSI Logic today announced that it will deliver a 4Gb/s Fibre Channel host bus adapter (HBA) product family, supporting the Fibre Channel Industry Association's (FCIA) vote to extend 4Gb/s Fibre Channel from a drive interconnect to HBAs and switched SAN (Storage Area Network) fabrics. LSI Logic says its 4Gb/s HBAs are expected to be available in mid 2004, and will be bundled with MyStorage management software, which is designed to simplify SAN management and reduce SAN installation time. They will be available in single and dual port versions with a PCI-X bus interface, will support 1-2-4GB/s
operations, and will support Mac OS X.

03/25, 7:30am

FileMaker Business Tracker

FileMaker today released FileMaker Business Tracker, a new promotional showcase solution, which combines business functions, such as customer tracking, invoicing, shipping and more. The free solution is designed to "help both current FileMaker Pro users and new users to learn about the many new features and functions now available in the new FileMaker Pro 7 database software from FileMaker." Users can also customize the solution further, such as adding specific company information or custom navigation buttons. FileMaker says the solution can also be shared over the web or over LANs and WANs.

03/25, 7:25am

RefViz released for OS X

Thomson ISI ResearchSoft today announced RefViz for Mac OS X, its new visualization tool designed for the researcher's desktop. It provides users with "a powerful way to explore reference literature visually for major themes and topics. References can be moved easily between RefViz and EndNote, the popular ISI ResearchSoft bibliographic software, enabling users to publish results faster." It offers users an interactive display of reference literature, organizes references by conceptual relationship, provides an overview of its relationship, and other analysis functions. RefViz runs on Mac OS X and is available for $300.

03/25, 7:20am

Anazi for Mac users

South African search portal Ananzi has created a new Apple-centric area for users, according to ITWeb. Ananzi will offer a "targeted, customized look and content specifically tailored to Mac users [and] will help promote the fact there is a dedicated online store for the local Apple customer. The store is run by distributor the Core Group and offers an alternative to the dedicated retail chain. With this in mind, the Apple section of the site now includes a look and feel revamp in line with Apple's user interface. It also features forums, a South African online Apple store, a newsletter on Apple developments and links to pertinent Apple-related news and product sites." The article also notes that the South African distributor has solved many of its distribution problems and is "now head of the supply curve," however, the iPod mini is not expected to be introduced until May because of the high demand in the US and its forthcoming introduction in Europe.

03/25, 7:10am

Apple\'s WGFB recognized

Apple's recently announced Workgroup Cluster for Bioinformatics has been named a "Best of Show finalist" in the "Information Technology Infrastructure" category at IDG's Spring Bio-IT World Conference and Expo: "Judged by a joint team of Bio-IT World and Health-IT World magazine editors and leading industry experts, the awards program spotlights new products which demonstrate exceptional technology innovation across the life sciences drug discovery process, healthcare management and outcomes-based medicine." Other finalists in the same category include Oracle Database 10g and SGI Altix 350 Servers. The winners are expected to be announced on March 31 at an awards ceremony.

03/25, 1:00am

Apps: PluginPal, Pyramid

PluginPal ($20) is a new utility for organizing iMovie plug-ins. With PluginPal, iMovie's plug-in list shows only those effects, titles, or transitions to be used with the current project. [Download - 487KB]Pyramid 1.1 is the latest release of the $30 visual outliner for Mac OS X. Version 1.1 adds significant new features, including: the ability to import images, export worksheets directly as image files, add notes to individual objects, and apply different fonts, colors or attributes to text within a single object. [Download - 366KB]TechTool Pro 4.0.2 is an update to the $98 system maintenance utility from Micromat. This release adds French, Italian and Japanese localizations; updates the bootable CD to 10.3.2; enhances Wipe Data, File Structure, Finder Info, Directory Maintenance, Data Recovery; and includes additional support for eDrive creation routine. [Download - 24.8MB]Keynote Jam ($25) adds to Jumsoft's line of Apple Keynote add-ons by providing a fully optimized set of 56 high-quality 3D-rendered images. These images are creatively designed specifically for Keynote, and will "look fantastic whether displayed directly on your computer monitor or projected onto a large screen." [Download - buy]OmniGraffle 3.1 is a update to the $70 diagramming application from the Omni Group. The new versions offers: better AppleScript support, complete Mac OS X 10.3 compatibility, an updated Actions inspector, and improved Visio compatibility. [Download - 7.5MB]Tess 1.60 is the latest version of Pedagoguery Software's $36 Classic application for exploring and creating tessellations and other symmetric artwork. The new version adds "aspect coloring" -- a feature that lets the user specify different colors for different "aspects" (views) of an object. [Download - 635KB]